Our new Indie Games subforum is now open for business in G&T. Go and check it out, you might land a code for a free game. If you're developing an indie game and want to post about it, follow these directions. If you don't, he'll break your legs! Hahaha! Seriously though.

Our rules have been updated and given their own forum. Go and look at them! They are nice, and there may be new ones that you didn't know about! Hooray for rules! Hooray for The System! Hooray for Conforming!

Eleven long years after Diablo 2: Lord of Distruction, Diablo 3 is finally upon us. Story wise, Diablo 3 takes place 20 years after the events of Diablo 2. But first, lets get everyone up to speed on the story so far. If you are new to the series and have no idea what happened in the previous two games, or you are an old vet who just wants a refresher before diving into D3, the following playlist serves as a great refresher on what has taken place in the world of Sanctuary.

Spoiler:

The rest can be found here

So what's different from Diablo 2?

The gameplay is what you would expect from Diablo. While the game is still an isometric click fest where you slaughter hundreds of demons in the enternal search for better loot, several of the mechanics/game systems have been changed. The game is, as you have surely heard by now, online only. You can set games to be private (invite only), friends only, and open to public. With friends only games, your friends will see a quick join button on their main screens, letting them drop in any time as long as there is room. The max player size is also 4 now. Skill trees, skill points, synergies, and manual stat placement are all gone. Instead, all of your stat points (you get more than 5 now) are gained and placed automatically with each level up, with distribution based on your class. Skills are now broken into Actives and Passives, and are all gained as you level up, along with the new skill runes (see below). The potion belt is also gone, and potions themselves now have a 30 second cooldown, so no more chugging to stay alive. Instead, enemies drop Health Orbs, which simply heal you (and all your allies within range.) when you walk over them. The bigger the orb, the more it heals. Runes and Runewords are also gone, and have been replace with a proper crafting system. Hardcore makes a return, but the requires you to have one character reach level 10 in normal before you can create any Hardcore characters. And last, but not least, Hell is no longer the hardest difficulty in the game. That duty has been taken over by the Inferno difficulty, which Blizzard promises will be absolutely brutal. There is plenty more info, with a lot more specifics, available at the official community sites game guide, which currently serves as Diablo 3s Mount Arreat. You can find a skill calculator there as well.

The Classes
Only 1 class returns from Diablo 2, the Barbarian. There will be 5 classes at launch, and they are:

Barbarian

Witch Doctor

Wizard

Monk

Demon Hunter

The Interface

Spoiler:

The potion belt has been replaced with a new action bar. Keys 1 - 4 (or whatever you decide to rebind them to, if you wish) are now assigned to skills, giving you a total of 6 active skills. Q is dedicated potion button. Town Portal scrolls are gone, and the spell is now available to every as an early quest reward that shows up on your bottom bar as well. The stat screen has also been much improved, providing a ton of information on almost every stat you could want.

Skills and Skill Runes

Spoiler:

As mentioned before, skills are now broken down into active and passive skills, and are unlocked in a predetermined order as you level. The slots for these skills also unlock as you go, with active skill slots opening up at levels 1, 2, 4, 9, 14, and 19, and passives at 10, 20, and 30. This allows for a max of 6 active and 3 passive skills in play at a time, which you can swap and change around, with a cooldown, at any time. (Think something like Guild Wars.) Damage for all skills is now calculated based off your weapon damage. This includes spells for the casters.

Skill Runes start unlocking at level 6, and change the way your skills work. Some simply improve already existing aspects, such as increasing damage or how much it slows, while others have more drastic effects. For example, the following screens are both of the Ray of Frost skill:

Skill ranges are all calculated in yards. Here is a handy distance map to better inform you of how far you or your attacks will travel.

Spoiler:

Crafting and the Artisans

Spoiler:

Crafting in game is done via the two Artisans, the Blacksmith and the Jewler. These guys are unlocked through quests early on, and follow you around for the rest of the game. Both Artisans can be leveled up to grant access to better recipes. (The level of the Artisan is retained across all characters.) This costs gold and, later on, pages of training. Leveling them up also improves their appearance in game, making their wagons and crafting areas more impressive.

The Blacksmith Crafts weapons and armor, as well as salvage any items (magic and higher) into the materials needed for you to craft anything.

The Jeweler Can add sockets to items, add or remove gems from items, and combine 3 gems of the same level into one gem of the next higher level.

(As a side note, there were originally 3 Artisans. The Mystic, who was removed during development, would enchant your gear. Blizzard has implied that she will most likely come back down the road, probably in an expansion.)

Followers

Spoiler:

Followers are essentially the new mercs. There are some differences, however. This time around, they are specific, story driven characters that join your quest as the game progresses. Each one has their own story, background, and distinct personality. Gameplay wise, they each fill a different roll in combat, can be equipped with a main and off hand weapon, two rings, and an amulet, and will level up along side you. At levels 5, 10, 15, and 20, they unlock a new teir of skills. Each tier has two skills, and you choose one of them. You can respec them, free of charge. At level 25 they gain acceess to a class-specific gear slot. They also get 20% of the Magic or Gold Find from gear, which is applied to your total while they are active. You can only have 1 follower active at a time, and only while playing solo. If someone joins your game while you have a follower active, they will simply salute you and head back to town.

The three Followers are:

Kormac, the Templar. The tank. Doesn't deal out much damage, but serves as an excellent meat sheild. Can use shields, one-handed axes, daggers, one-handed maces, one-handed spears, one-handed swords, and the Templar specific relics.

Lyndon, the Scoundrel Ranged pysical damage dealer. Can use bows, two-handed crossbows, and the Scoundrel specific Tokens. Also has an excellently-groomed mustache.

Diablo 3 has two different types of Auction houses available for players: the gold AH, and the Real Money AH. The gold AH is fairly straight forward, and functions largely the same as AHs found in other games, like WoW. It's available at launch to both Normal and Hardcore characters, but is exclusive between the two.

The RMAH allows you to buy and sell in game items with real world currency. The RMAH will be available approximately one week after launch. Here's quick breakdown of the specifics:

-Commodities are automatically searched for best price, and are buyout only.
-You must choose Battle.net balance or real currency when you post the auction, not when it sells.
-15% fee on cashing out
-Battle.net balance can be used for a bunch of battle.net stuff including digital games, and WoW paid services. It cannot be used to pay subscription fees.
-No RMAH in Asia at release
-RMAH comes out one week after the game.

I'll be adding more to this OP over the next few weeks, especially after release and we have all had some time to dig into it. So, if there is anything I missed, or just something you would like to see added, please let me know!

So my Diablo III client still won't update, it just stays at Updating Tools (0%)

Is the new patch out yet or not?

Had the same issue. You need to delete your battle.net folder in the hidden folder "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ ... Once " I believe. I did that, ended the agent*32 task in task manager and restarted the launcher and it worked fine.

Oh and when you do that it will attempt to redownload a bunch of stuff and your install bar may freeze for 5-10 minutes, don't close it, just let it go and it will be fine.

I can't find this mythical folder

Also, I'm really excited for the lore stuff

Book of Cain hints at what we'll see

Spoiler:

The book makes it canon that the one who defeated Diablo in the original game was King Leoric's older son, Aiden.

Aiden shoves the stone in his head like an idiot, bangs Adria, wanders east (always into the east), Adria gives birth to Leah, disappears, and Cain raises Leah.

Here's my speculation: Leah was made by Aiden's corrupted Diablosperm, so she'll be the vessel of Diablo's return. It would explain why there was that official art of chick Diablo.

What I'm really interested in is Belial. The Book of Cain says he gets so deep into his lies that he can find it hard to quit. Also it says he'd mostly likely take the disguise of an influential person. What if Cain is Belial, so wrapped up in his lie that he thinks he actually is Cain? Or maybe it was all intentional, guiding the heroes to get rid of the Prime Evils so Belial could take over?

So my Diablo III client still won't update, it just stays at Updating Tools (0%)

Is the new patch out yet or not?

Had the same issue. You need to delete your battle.net folder in the hidden folder "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ ... Once " I believe. I did that, ended the agent*32 task in task manager and restarted the launcher and it worked fine.

Oh and when you do that it will attempt to redownload a bunch of stuff and your install bar may freeze for 5-10 minutes, don't close it, just let it go and it will be fine.

I can't find this mythical folder

Also, I'm really excited for the lore stuff

Book of Cain hints at what we'll see

Spoiler:

The book makes it canon that the one who defeated Diablo in the original game was King Leoric's older son, Aiden.

Aiden shoves the stone in his head like an idiot, bangs Adria, wanders east (always into the east), Adria gives birth to Leah, disappears, and Cain raises Leah.

Here's my speculation: Leah was made by Aiden's corrupted Diablosperm, so she'll be the vessel of Diablo's return. It would explain why there was that official art of chick Diablo.

What I'm really interested in is Belial. The Book of Cain says he gets so deep into his lies that he can find it hard to quit. Also it says he'd mostly likely take the disguise of an influential person. What if Cain is Belial, so wrapped up in his lie that he thinks he actually is Cain? Or maybe it was all intentional, guiding the heroes to get rid of the Prime Evils so Belial could take over?

While I like Diablo lore, I haven't had much interest in its EU, though I've heard there is some good stuff here and there.

I just hope there isn't an overload of 'rage against the heavens' plotline, because while yes, most angels in Diablo are dicks or just don't care it's a plotline that has been done to death in recent years. Having some angels stick around and stay good would be a subversion of expectations at this point.

Though this is Blizzard so we'll see how far away from cliche central they get.

Also, why is the Barbarian hero suddenly immune to going crazy? I thought it was that all the heroes of prior games were crazy or died. Heroic sacrifice and all that.

So my Diablo III client still won't update, it just stays at Updating Tools (0%)

Is the new patch out yet or not?

Had the same issue. You need to delete your battle.net folder in the hidden folder "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ ... Once " I believe. I did that, ended the agent*32 task in task manager and restarted the launcher and it worked fine.

Oh and when you do that it will attempt to redownload a bunch of stuff and your install bar may freeze for 5-10 minutes, don't close it, just let it go and it will be fine.

I can't find this mythical folder

Also, I'm really excited for the lore stuff

Book of Cain hints at what we'll see

Spoiler:

The book makes it canon that the one who defeated Diablo in the original game was King Leoric's older son, Aiden.

Aiden shoves the stone in his head like an idiot, bangs Adria, wanders east (always into the east), Adria gives birth to Leah, disappears, and Cain raises Leah.

Here's my speculation: Leah was made by Aiden's corrupted Diablosperm, so she'll be the vessel of Diablo's return. It would explain why there was that official art of chick Diablo.

What I'm really interested in is Belial. The Book of Cain says he gets so deep into his lies that he can find it hard to quit. Also it says he'd mostly likely take the disguise of an influential person. What if Cain is Belial, so wrapped up in his lie that he thinks he actually is Cain? Or maybe it was all intentional, guiding the heroes to get rid of the Prime Evils so Belial could take over?

While I like Diablo lore, I haven't had much interest in its EU, though I've heard there is some good stuff here and there.

I just hope there isn't an overload of 'rage against the heavens' plotline, because while yes, most angels in Diablo are dicks or just don't care it's a plotline that has been done to death in recent years. Having some angels stick around and stay good would be a subversion of expectations at this point.

Though this is Blizzard so we'll see how far away from cliche central they get.

Also, why is the Barbarian hero suddenly immune to going crazy? I thought it was that all the heroes of prior games were crazy or died. Heroic sacrifice and all that.

The better question is: Why would anyone bang a person who has a giant crystal sticking out of their skull? I think we can confirm that Adria was completely off her rocker.

So my Diablo III client still won't update, it just stays at Updating Tools (0%)

Is the new patch out yet or not?

Had the same issue. You need to delete your battle.net folder in the hidden folder "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ ... Once " I believe. I did that, ended the agent*32 task in task manager and restarted the launcher and it worked fine.

Oh and when you do that it will attempt to redownload a bunch of stuff and your install bar may freeze for 5-10 minutes, don't close it, just let it go and it will be fine.

I can't find this mythical folder

Also, I'm really excited for the lore stuff

Book of Cain hints at what we'll see

Spoiler:

The book makes it canon that the one who defeated Diablo in the original game was King Leoric's older son, Aiden.

Aiden shoves the stone in his head like an idiot, bangs Adria, wanders east (always into the east), Adria gives birth to Leah, disappears, and Cain raises Leah.

Here's my speculation: Leah was made by Aiden's corrupted Diablosperm, so she'll be the vessel of Diablo's return. It would explain why there was that official art of chick Diablo.

What I'm really interested in is Belial. The Book of Cain says he gets so deep into his lies that he can find it hard to quit. Also it says he'd mostly likely take the disguise of an influential person. What if Cain is Belial, so wrapped up in his lie that he thinks he actually is Cain? Or maybe it was all intentional, guiding the heroes to get rid of the Prime Evils so Belial could take over?

While I like Diablo lore, I haven't had much interest in its EU, though I've heard there is some good stuff here and there.

I just hope there isn't an overload of 'rage against the heavens' plotline, because while yes, most angels in Diablo are dicks or just don't care it's a plotline that has been done to death in recent years. Having some angels stick around and stay good would be a subversion of expectations at this point.

Though this is Blizzard so we'll see how far away from cliche central they get.

Also, why is the Barbarian hero suddenly immune to going crazy? I thought it was that all the heroes of prior games were crazy or died. Heroic sacrifice and all that.

The better question is: Why would anyone bang a person who has a giant crystal sticking out of their skull? I think we can confirm that Adria was completely off her rocker.

Well, you know how it is for aging witches. A hunky warrior guy comes along, storms hell, kills the devil. Sure, he's got a crystal sticking out of his skull, but she loves him for beauty within. She's understanding like that.

So my Diablo III client still won't update, it just stays at Updating Tools (0%)

Is the new patch out yet or not?

Had the same issue. You need to delete your battle.net folder in the hidden folder "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ ... Once " I believe. I did that, ended the agent*32 task in task manager and restarted the launcher and it worked fine.

Oh and when you do that it will attempt to redownload a bunch of stuff and your install bar may freeze for 5-10 minutes, don't close it, just let it go and it will be fine.

I can't find this mythical folder

Also, I'm really excited for the lore stuff

Book of Cain hints at what we'll see

Spoiler:

The book makes it canon that the one who defeated Diablo in the original game was King Leoric's older son, Aiden.

Aiden shoves the stone in his head like an idiot, bangs Adria, wanders east (always into the east), Adria gives birth to Leah, disappears, and Cain raises Leah.

Here's my speculation: Leah was made by Aiden's corrupted Diablosperm, so she'll be the vessel of Diablo's return. It would explain why there was that official art of chick Diablo.

What I'm really interested in is Belial. The Book of Cain says he gets so deep into his lies that he can find it hard to quit. Also it says he'd mostly likely take the disguise of an influential person. What if Cain is Belial, so wrapped up in his lie that he thinks he actually is Cain? Or maybe it was all intentional, guiding the heroes to get rid of the Prime Evils so Belial could take over?

You need to go into the view settings and show hidden files and folders to find it. Tis a hidden folder. It also may be in a different spot based on your OS. I'm running Windows 7 so that's where I found it. YMMV but it should be in a similar location. Let me know your OS and i'll let you know where to find it.

Did you guys actually play any of their games? Strarcraft and Brood Wars were very well made, which is the only reason their stories and characters stand out to anyone. Same goes for Warcraft 2, Warcraft 3, and all the Diablo games. Craftsmanship manages to trump their derivative and cliched plots and so very standard worldbuilding.

WoW was the decline of their storytelling, and Starcraft II was just embarrassing proof of that. Diablo III will cement this, and the retcons have already begun.

The loresmiths have left the building. All that's left is madman Metzen running the asylum.

Uh, Metzen has always been running the asylum. If you're referring to D2 as amazing storytelling, I hate to tell you, having literally just replayed it this week, it's fairly weak. It's not awful, and it is there, but it's not some masterpiece of fiction. If anything, I'd say Warcraft 3 was more of an aberration of Blizzard story wise, than anything else. That carried over to Wrath in WoW being actually really fucking fun and engaging story wise versus pretty much any other era of that game. And all of that was because Arthas and the whole Burning Legion saga more or less completely stole the show from Thrall in WC3, when the whole idea behind it originally was it was to be Thralls game, who is Metzen's little pet character (Not trying to be too judgmental of it, but, that's how it seems to me at least).

Edit: As for SC2, I'm waiting until we see what happens in Heart and Legacy. Trying to take this as Act 1 of a 3 Act play. Hopes aren't terribly high right now, but if we find out Kerrigan is nothing more than a murderous bitch still, I will be pleasantly surprised.

I just think it's funny that Blizzard literally cannot come up with a way to keep old villians interesting.

Warcraft: The orcs are evil warmongers, kill them all!
Warcraft III and beyond: The orcs are really misunderstood and are just puppets and humans are nasty zealots. Oh yeah, the main enemies are now zombies!

Starcraft: The Zerg are evil and will devour the galaxy!
Starcraft II: The Zerg are really misunderstood and are just puppets and humans are evil bastards. Oh yeah, the main enemies are now hybrids!

I know they're going to do the same thing with the High Heavens in Diablo III, and in Diablo IV, no doubt Angels and demons join forces to fight Ctuhulu. I just hope they don't do something awful like kill the T. man for the sake of 'drama'.

Diablo 2 has amazing cutscenes though. Sometimes a story doesn't have to be brilliantly written for it to be well told. Cinematography goes a long way and that is how the main plot should develop. After each act.

Exactly. The story will be as banal as it's always been, but the production values will be top notch. Just like in Diablo 1 and Diablo 2. It was pretty much the same in Starcraft 2, but by then other developers were starting to catch up with Blizzard so it was more obvious what they were doing.